The present invention relates to a method for operating a combine harvester comprising a plurality of working assemblies that are driven by at least one belt drive and a ground drive, wherein the at least one belt drive and the ground drive are driven by a main drive comprising an engine.
A method for operating a combine harvester is known from EP 1 740 434 B1. According to the method described in EP 1 740 434 B1, the development of a crop blockage at a threshing-separating rotor is detected. To this end, the result of the measurement of an actual motor speed of a hydraulic motor and the measurement of a motor speed of an engine, which jointly drive the threshing-separating rotor, and the measurement of the speed of the threshing-separating rotor are combined with one another. The combination of the measured engine speed and the measured rotor speed are used to calculate a hydraulic motor speed, which is compared with the measured hydraulic motor speed. If the comparison reveals that a crop blockage is forthcoming, the threshing-separating rotor is decoupled from the hydraulic motor driving this threshing-separating rotor, and from the engine. In addition, the drive of a feed device is decoupled in order to prevent the subsequent delivery of additional crop.
The method according to EP 1 749 434 B1 presumes that a forthcoming crop blockage in the threshing-separating rotor can be determined in such a timely manner that the threshing-separating rotor can automatically remedy the situation, which presumes that the threshing-separating rotor is provided with sufficient time to handle the situation and that no more crop is fed to the threshing-separating rotor during this time. The time period to be calculated for this purpose has a two-fold effect on the operation of the combine harvester. On the one hand, the harvesting process per se is interrupted and, on the other hand, the combine harvester continues to travel, during this time, over the field to be harvested, although without picking up crop, since the feed device is decoupled from the drive thereof during this time period. Therefore, not only is there a loss of production, but harvesting losses also occur and must be accepted, regardless of the result of the handling of the crop blockage. An operator does not realize the situation until the moment when a corresponding control device has already implemented the intended measures to eliminate a forthcoming crop blockage.